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Planning a successful 2012 season

Created On: 05 January 2012

The Christmas Season is now over and we'll soon be back to
'normal' with everyone making their resolutions now is the time for
you to look ahead to your race season and start making your
decisions and planning for 2012 whilst you are feeling motivated by
the New Year.

We've put together a few tips to help you plan the perfect
triathlon season:

Allow time to plan your season - If you
haven't already now is the time to enter your races for the season
so you have commitment and also to make sure that your key races
don't fill up and you miss a place. First decide what distances to
race and also what will be your races for the season. Try and think
about how the races will fit into your personal life before
deciding on your key races, no point planning a race around a busy
time at work or when you are having time off with the family. Plan
your season with some gradual progression starting perhaps with a
couple of sprint races to get you started moving up to Olympic
distance or if doing an Ironman perhaps do a half or even some long
sportive and long runs to prepare, just make sure you leave plenty
of time.

Set your goals - Once you've got your race
plan sorted think about what you want to achieve in your key races.
This might be simply getting some experience and enjoying the races
as it's your first season, to qualifying for the Age group GB team,
completing your first Ironman or even qualifying for Kona.
Important thing is to be realistic with your goals. Think about how
much training you've done since the end of last season, think about
how you did last season and add sensible improvements on rather
than big chunks unless your training has been going really
well.

Focus on what you need to improve - If you
raced last year think about how you are going to make the necessary
improvements you want, and be honest. Do you need to lose weight so
that your power to weight ratio is increased especially after the
Christmas period. If so have a plan to lose the weight gradually
over a period of time rather than rushing it as this will affect
the quality of training you can do if you are hungry. If you had a
specific weakness in one of the disciplines then if you haven't
already now is the time to address that. Perhaps get the help of a
coach or some video analysis and then spend more time than normal
on that discipline. At this time of year when it is difficult to
get out on the bike due to the weather spending more time in the
pool working on your weak swim or even doing some run training on
the treadmill where you can focus on technique.

Ensuring you have a training / life balance -
This might not only be a time to make some decisions around your
training or racing but also your family or work. Maybe you have
decided to spend more time with the family and this might mean
altering your training plan so that you spend one day over the
weekend at home with your loved ones. This might mean fitting more
training during the week but could be worth the long term benefits.
You might also make the decision to finish work on time more
regularly so that you can get home to see the family or even get
those extra sessions in. You might even be considering a change in
career which is great but be honest how this might affect your
training and race plan.

Have fun - The final tip is that whatever you
decide make sure you enjoy it and have fun. Pick races you enjoy,
have fun within the sport whether it be within the training
sessions, the people you train with or the races you do.